Jeff Smith's Guide to Head and Shoulders Portrait Photography

O

ne of the biggest misconceptions about head and shoulders portraits is

that very little posing is needed to create a beautiful, salable portrait. In

fact, you must select a pose that coordinates with the lighting, background, and

clothing to produce a look that will fulfill the client’s needs and desires. On top

of that, your posing must hide (or at least lessen) the obvious flaws that your

client wouldn’t want to see. Before we get into corrective posing, however,

we’ll review the basic components that go into a flattering pose.

Posing is a study of the human form that never ends, because it is a study that

is always changing. From my experience, the photographers who have the hard-

est time creating poses that meet clients’ expectations are the young photogra-

phers and the older, “well seasoned” photographers. Both tend to pose a client

to meet their own expectations and not the client’s. If you pose clients in this

way, they will never be as happy as they could be, and you will never profit as

much as you could by learning to pose for the client and not yourself.

The Head and Face.

The Face Turned Toward the Main Light.

chapter, I work with a lighting ratio that is approximately 2:1 or 3:1 without dif-

fusion, and 4:1 with diffusion. This means that if the face is turned away from

the main light, the shadow on the side of the nose will increase, making the

nose appear larger.

If, instead, you turn the face toward the main-light source, whether in the

studio or outdoors, you light the mask of the face without increasing shadow-

ing in areas of the face where it shouldn’t be. An added bonus is that turning

the head also stretches out the neck and reduces the appearance of a double

chin, if the subject has one. (Note:Decreasing the lighting ratio also reduces un-

flattering shadows, but it produces a flat look in the portrait. I call this “mall

lighting,” because the inexperienced photographers employed by most national

POSING 57

6. Posing..

Select a pose that

coordinates with the

lighting, background,

and clothing.